le 8 décembre 2010

In Global Solidarity with Students and Faculty Protesting Cuts in the UK

(Pétition internationale)

We the undersigned wish to congratulate faculty and students on the anti-cuts demonstration that took place in Central London, including those who protested at Millbank Tower, the Conservative Headquarters, on November 10th 2010. Over 50,000 took to the streets to oppose the coalition government’s devastating proposals for cuts to social provisions including but not limited to education, an action that we hope will inspire further demonstrations in the UK but will also generate similar political actions, globally.

Despite mainstream media coverage of these most recent proposed budget cuts and of the anti-cut demonstrations in the UK, these cannot be viewed as isolated events but must be seen as part of a larger global trend that has been unfolding for some time in the Global South and which has more recently spread to the Global North (Canada, US). Drastic cuts to education and to other public services have severely curtailed and even eliminated student rights to education while at the same time producing dismal and exploitative working and learning conditions in universities and colleges across the globe.

Standing in solidarity with faculty and students in the UK, we wish to condemn the repressive responses by the coalition government to all and any anti-cuts demonstrators. The real violence perpetuated here is not manifest in the smashed window but in the destructive impact that such cuts will have and in the coalition government’s repressive efforts to criminalize the actions of students and faculty who are speaking out against tuition increases, elimination of social services (e.g. for the unemployed, the disabled, migrant workers, among many), and the privatization of education and other public services which are sure to follow.